With particular reference to the known washing machines, the perforated basket, which is intended to accommodate the laundry to be washed, is pivotally arranged within a tank containing the lye. Due to the rotational movement of the basket, the laundry is agitated and caused to spin in the lye, and the lye is carried upwards by the rotating basket, from where it falls on the laundry which results to be completely immersed and soaked, such that the impurities are transferred to the washing and rinsing lye.
The basket usually consists of a rear wall by means of which the basket is secured within the washing machine, a front wall defining a loading opening through which it is possible to gain access to the interior of the basket and a side wall being generally cylindrical and perforated to allow the lye exchange between the tank and the interior of the basket. The side wall is usually formed from a steel sheet with two opposite longitudinal edges and two opposite transversal edges, which is folded about a longitudinal axis of the basket to form this cylinder and the transversal edges of which are connected to each other to keep the cylindrical shape, whereas the longitudinal edges are connected to respective outer edges of the rear and front walls to form the basket.
To increase the washing and drying performance on the laundry contained within the basket, attempts are made to operate baskets in washing machines with increasing rotation speeds and increasingly abrupt reversals of the direction of rotation. These operating conditions of modern washing machines and dryers entail high centrifugal forces, which cause a part of the laundry to slip along the side wall of the basket without being agitated, and to be held within the recesses formed between the side wall of the basket and the dragging blades that radially project from this side wall towards the inside of the basket.
This “stagnant” accumulation of laundry along the outer wall of the basket, besides reducing the washing effectiveness on this part of the laundry, also obstructs the lye-exchange perforations between the washing tank and the basket.
The object of the present invention is thus to provide a basket for washing machines, washer-dryers and dryers having such characteristics as to cause a remixing of the laundry layer being formed along the side wall of the basket due to the centrifugal force, while allowing an improved exchange of liquid between the washing tank and the basket.